Folding Plug is Big Winner at Brit Insurance Design Awards

It's a David and Goliath win. The folding plug, designed by a humble student from the Royal College of Art in London, has won the Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2010 overall prize at the Brit Insurance Design Awards this year.

And TreeHugger called it, right from the start. Min-Kyu Choi has beat out some of the top names in the design world with his sleek, convenient and ingenious creation. It shows how good design can transform even the most mundane things.

Here's a picture of the UK clunky plug. It is easy to see that it is not designed for carrying around in a slim briefcase. And it is easy to see why the jury got so excited about the sleek white folding plug as the answer to an annoying design problem. The chair of the panel, artist Antony Gormley, said: "The folding plug shows how intelligent, elegant and inventive design can make a difference to everyone's life."

This was the challenge that the designer set for himself: to figure out how to make a plug that would be good looking and hassle-free "for people on the go." He did it because he was fed up with scratching his laptop while travelling.

The winning design is less than 1 cm. thick when it is folded. He explained the concept: "It only needs two simple actions - turning the main pins and opening the cover."

His company, Made in Mind, has a clear statement of their goals: Our vision is to bring clean simple design to everyday objects. Headlined by our award winning folding plug design, Made in Mind will be applying the same subtle refinement to products that have been previously overlooked as we strive to continuously amaze.